Tanzania, East Africa — The two largest tanzanite gemstones have been recently discovered by the workers of a Tanzanian boss, which is worth of $3.35 million.
Each of these two dark violet-blue gemstones were about 30cm long and 10cm thick. They were discovered in a mine in north of Africa by minors employed by Saniniu Laizer.
Laizer told the BBC that they will be holding a big party in celebration of finding these gemstones.
“I want to build a shopping mall and a school. I want to build this school near my home. There are many poor people around here who can’t afford to take their children to school,” Laizer said.
Even though the gemstones were found last week by the minors, the discovery was only known when Laizer sold the gemstones to the government on Wednesday. A mines ministry spokesman said that the first gemstone weighed of 9.27kg and the second of 5.103kg.
Laizer mentioned that 10% of the earnings from the sale of the gemstones will be distributed among his workers of more than 200 people.
The biggest tanzanite previously found was a stone of 3.38kg found by a commercial mining company 15 years ago.
Tanzanites are only found in a small nothern region of east African nation. They were first identified in 1967.
